Thursday, January 5, 2012

Nature abhors a vacuum

Nature abhors a vacuum, and an empty flat surface is the topological equivalent of a vacuum. Flat surfaces inevitably get covered up with, well stuff.  And on a boat, things are made worse by the dearth of flat surfaces to begin with.  Brian over at Dock 6 addresses the problem head-on with a clever folding counter extension:
In true low-buck fashion, this is a freebie project. One of the advantages of being a really lousy woodworker is that I always have lots of scrap wood lying around from earlier mistakes. Some of it is really nice wood, which I decided to put to use in a galley extension.

Our galley counter space is limited, and our room to add more counter space is limited as well, so I cobbled together a folding extension which will mount to the aft end of the galley, beside the sink in the picture below:

Here is the extension folded for storage:


(Please ignore the epoxy bubbles and runs- I still need to sand and add the final finish.)


Hidden behind the flap when it is stowed is a narrow shelf, just big enough for nav tools, pencils, a pad of paper and issues of Good Old Boat and Small Craft Advisor.



Most of the materials were scrap on-hand, but I did have to shell out $7.46 for hinges.

Also seen in the above picture is the knife rack, cut from 2 x2 cedar.

3 comments:

  1. Nice.

    In some narrow galleys (ours) a simply plank and some brackets can do the same job.
    http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2010/03/few-more-pdq-upgrades.html.
    Interestingly, the galey also has a fold-down cutting board, something like your project, just behind the photographer.

    Other times (see "Salon Pilot Berth") fold-own is perfect.
    http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2010/11/few-more-pdq-tweaks.html

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  2. And no fair claiming to be a lousy woodworker; that's my hard-earned title.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good idea but take my advice and leave this extension in its "down" position AS SOON AS YOU'RE FINISHED USING IT! Where your extension is is where my nav desk is. Seems like it would make a great counter extension, right? Wrong. Since it's always there it is, naturally, completely covered with "stuff" all the time except when actually sailing. Leave your extension up for 5 seconds longer then you need it and it will immediately attract "stuff" and never get folded down again, or be useful asa galley extension. Like the intro says, "nature abhors a vacuum".

    -Steve

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